Domenico Rosa posted Mar 26, 2013 4:27 PM:> It is my firm opinion that, in order to improve the> "later math skills" of American students, most of our> arithmetic/mathematics doorstops should be thrown> directly in the dumpster.> ======================> > http://news.yahoo.com/early-number-sense-plays-role-la> ter-math-skills-173349630--politics.html> > Early number sense plays role in later math skills> <snip>(Have not yet looked at the LAURAN NEERGAARD article).

Your above contention is probably (/possibly) correct, though I would hesitate to put it just like that. The real issue is to prevent/minimize the number of such "door-stop" (i.e. useless) books - the enormous number of trees that are cut to produce these books are a real issue.

(I must confess I have not examined these school texts at all, so I wouldn't really know what is useful and what is not - I assume there must be plenty that's valid in Domenico Rosa's oft iterated remark).

I DO know, however, that: we're wasting huge resources in every way, every day. We do need to get a hold on that.

(See also the recent thread on the "exponential function". With that kind of thought in mind, I AM led to wonder what might have been the underlying reasons for Haim's and Robert Hansen's many posts deriding a process that could help us understand the significance of the 'exponential function).